Project: Oscillighter

The heat here just refuses to relent, my garage is too hot for soldering and focusing and such. So my projects have all say mostly silent for far too long.

The Oscillighter is at a point where I am just kind of putting things together. I’ve had so many ideas for it, alternative ways to do things, etc. And I haven’t even finished this one.

The core of it is just a 40106 IC running 4 oscillators into 4 different colored LEDs. But it’s designed to be more then just a colorful blinky box. It will have a wand which can be used like a pen, connected to the control box by a long cord, so you essentially have full control or can let someone else run the controls while you play.

I also want it to feel natural and work well for light painting since that is it’s purpose. I think the wand works nicely for handwriting as well as just general sweeps and strokes of light. So it will be pretty cool when it’s done.

If I can finish it. lol

nicabne reblogged your photo: My little family of Monotrons. All that’s missing…

my next buy (all 3)

I would also make sure you have the cables to run one to the next for filtering and such. The delay is great as the end piece of the three. But, my fave is still the original Monotron itself. Even though I don’t have any working units on hand, well not fully working, it’s still my fave.

I just love that they are so cheap. $50 gets you a serious little gadget for some casual OR serious music work. And you aren’t out $150+tax or shipping or whatever up front, because you can purchase each alone FTW. Of course if you want to do anything beyond tinker you need a few cables. And everyone needs extra batteries, but all in all… they are affordable and rockin good times so to speak :D

My little family of Monotrons. All that’s missing is the Monotribe and I’m not quite ready to sink $200 on that sweet beast just yet. Even if you aren’t musically inclined, these are all cheap wonderful musical toys for hours of entertainment at $50 USD each.View full size

My little family of Monotrons.

All that’s missing is the Monotribe and I’m not quite ready to sink $200 on that sweet beast just yet.

Even if you aren’t musically inclined, these are all cheap wonderful musical toys for hours of entertainment at $50 USD each.

Is it me or does the Monotron Duo not have the same range, frequency range, especially in the low-end that the original Monotron has? Ignore the cables sticking out the back of the original Monotron, that’s just the bend wires… This is my 2nd one to bend after I destroyed the first one.View full size

Is it me or does the Monotron Duo not have the same range, frequency range, especially in the low-end that the original Monotron has?

Ignore the cables sticking out the back of the original Monotron, that’s just the bend wires… This is my 2nd one to bend after I destroyed the first one.

Project: Oscillighter I’m making progress on the Oscillighter project. I’ve got the main control unit layout mostly complete and the guts are breadboarded and for the most part ready to be soldered to together. I do need to get a few LEDs that have a bit more kick, I was thinking of getting a white one to go with the red, green and blue. If I can find a yellow one that’s higher intensity with a good wide viewing angle I may do that over the white. The wand itself is also in progress… I just need to work out a few details and acquire the above mentioned LED. All that’s really held me back on finishing this up is the heat here. It’s too hot to work in the garage except in the early mornings or late at night. I’m excited to get it completed… And hoping to finish it up by next weekend at the latest.View full size

Project: Oscillighter

I’m making progress on the Oscillighter project. I’ve got the main control unit layout mostly complete and the guts are breadboarded and for the most part ready to be soldered to together.

I do need to get a few LEDs that have a bit more kick, I was thinking of getting a white one to go with the red, green and blue. If I can find a yellow one that’s higher intensity with a good wide viewing angle I may do that over the white.

The wand itself is also in progress… I just need to work out a few details and acquire the above mentioned LED.

All that’s really held me back on finishing this up is the heat here. It’s too hot to work in the garage except in the early mornings or late at night.

I’m excited to get it completed… And hoping to finish it up by next weekend at the latest.

Project: LightBug

Four done. They aren’t pretty but they work nicely. Each one has a battery, on/off switch and an LED plus a crazy powerful magnet so you can stick em anywhere metal for crazy light painting goodness.

A new audio toy to play with, SQUEE! I probably won’t bend this, not for a while. After killing one of my 2 Monotrons, I think I’ll just enjoy playing with it. I’d also like to get the Delay version too, maybe next pay period. Korg Monotron Duo, $50 USD - 2 Oscillators that can play together or one can oscillate the other, and the same guts as the original Monotron, plus the same input for outside devices to run thru the VCF filter for sweet audio goodness. I’ve already run my Kaossilator thru it and into one of my bent amps and played. It was wicked. :DView full size

A new audio toy to play with, SQUEE!

I probably won’t bend this, not for a while. After killing one of my 2 Monotrons, I think I’ll just enjoy playing with it.

I’d also like to get the Delay version too, maybe next pay period.

Korg Monotron Duo, $50 USD - 2 Oscillators that can play together or one can oscillate the other, and the same guts as the original Monotron, plus the same input for outside devices to run thru the VCF filter for sweet audio goodness.

I’ve already run my Kaossilator thru it and into one of my bent amps and played. It was wicked. :D

Project: Oscillighter

I can’t show you actual photos of this one yet because it’s just a mess on a breadboard. But, the goal is to create a wicked lightpen that can be controlled via multiple oscillators for light painting. When it’s more together, I’ll put pictures up. The plan is to use a Really Useful Box (You see a lot of my projects in these) as the base controller, running a long cable out to a “pen” with leds on it. I am hoping maybe this weekend to start actually soldering some of it together and getting the container going etc.

These are just some shots I took with the sweet iOS app, LightBomber, of the project on the breadboard. To give you something cool to look at when you read this.

alienphotosack:

iOS app of the day: Decim8 ($.99, 4.4MB)

If you love photo manipulation, photo destruction, or just like crazy over the top filtering of pictures, this app is SO for you. I was turned onto it by the folks from MRI Lightpainting, creators of LightBomber. 

It basically lets you take photos or use photos already on your phone to create some of the most wicked messed up destroyed, compressed, twisted, pixelated, images you could imagine. It’s like if Trent Reznor was eating by a JPG, then had babies with punks and hackers… this app would be the result.

It has a ton of filters, each of which can be changed, layered over each other, and then you can add that group of filters over the others, and so on. Very cool stuff.

The filters can be pretty intensive to process. So I suggest you play with a lower resolution (self-facing camera version or resized) image first before applying it to a full resolution image. That way you can play with the randomizer and process to see what you get until you find things you dig.

If you are looking for new and interesting apps for photo manipulation, check it out. It’s well worth the $.99 USD.

For you circuit benders and hardware hackers with iOS devices, this camera app to me is basically the coolest “circuit bending for photos” app ever. It’s results are extremely wicked and you can really jack up a photo.

I highly recommend it for benders/hackers who also like to mess with photos and have an iOS device.

Project: Winnie Noise Analyzer

I’ve posted this before, but not this video. This was recorded using ToonCamera on an iOS device and I think that it’s being fed a Kaossilator loop. The sound is coming from the same Kaossilator going thru one of my amps seen here.